Rafael Viñoly’s tower at 432 Park Avenue, New York, seen from Central Park. April 2015
If you have 100 million or so, you may be able to bid for New York’s current number one trophy penthouse, nearing completion at at the top of architect Rafael Viñoly’s 432 Park Avenue. From here you can look straight downtown, over the top of the Empire State building the spire of which tops out some 150 feet below, to see how your money is doing on Wall Street. You will even be 28 feet higher than the top of the new Freedom Tower, or whatever it is currently called, on the old World Trade Center site. And this is just the first of a series of needles for the uber-wealthy, made possible by our previous Mayor’s administration, going up just beyond the south end of Central Park leading to concerns that over-shadowing will cause changes in the Park’s ecosystems. Needles are also what are probably paying for some of these helicopter-view apartments, many to be left vacant just as convenient places to dispose of hush-hush cash.